icture if you may the rush of all the middle schoolers, and all the staff. Setting: Burley Middle School Gym, and the students took their places. Ms. Rote, my teacher, restraining me at the opening doors. The students packing in more and more inside in the gym with a lot of excitement filling the air. Finally the microphone came on and announced "All dancers contest." Applicants flooded the floors as the rest of the school sat back in great anticipation. The focus was on the floor from the miles of condescending bleachers of 6th, 7th, and 8th Graders. First, it was a group of S.T.E.P. Students, I thought the competition had no chance against them. They did their numbers, then all of a sudden I, Daniel felt the urge to compete., broke free of my teacher's long armed grasp and I was free. All students, all staff, all but Ms. Rote, my teacher, gave me the "LOOK." The look was saying "I'm your mother; come back here." "No!" I was free. No chance to turn back. I signed up, told them my selection "Whoop There It Is" by 95-South. BoOOM the music began to play down, right, and left my body grooving to the music. "Oh-No" I thought my shoe had fallen off in the middle of my dance. "Was that going to stop me?" "No Way!" I carried the shoe in my hands, spun around on my butt placing the shoe back on after spinning on my butt. Then I proceeded to finish up with the moves I had remaining. The cheer came on like a loud roaring waterfall. I went back to my teacher, and I sat and waited for the results. The microphone came back on. This was it. "Was I going to be 1st place or last place?" The answer was "Daniel Poor 1st place!" I was shocked, and I was so happy. The cheer returned and then stopped, the once fully packed gym was empty. That was Daniel Poor's Era forever in the minds of everybody who went to Burley Middle School 1993 and 1994 school year.

First, always blot a stain, never rub, because it will set the stain every time. When getting out a stain start from the wrong side of the fabric. Instead of drinking club soda, use it for stains on carpets. Baking soda is good for odors in the refrigerator. If your refrigerator suffers from acid reflux, baking soda is the best thing for it. Peroxide is good for getting out blood stains, cleaning earrings and putting on cuts. Just watch the bubbles bubble! Since salt is not good for high blood pressure, try using a little salt with lemon juice to remove mildew stains. Glycerine will remove juices, mustard, ketchup, and barbeque sauce. As long as you have a little glycerine, you don't need a napkin. Let's try a denture tablet or two in your toilet. Go ahead and clean your false teeth while you are cleaning your toilet. Now, let's try some Country Time Lemonade and Dr. Pepper in your toilet bowl to get out stains. If you come to my house and want something to drink, just go to my bathroom, take a cup and get all you want! Rubbing alcohol is good to use for the kitchen and bathroom faucets, and good to disinfect your phone.

A fabric-softener sheet is good to dust your TV screen. Put a little rubbing alcohol on it, then wipe. And guess what? No streaks. When vacuuming your carpet, put a fabric softener sheet in your bag and sprinkle baking soda on the carpet. This gives a nice smell. Use a fabric softener sheet to wipe off lampshades. How about using a fabric softener sheet in your pillow cases? While you are sleeping, you can fall asleep wondering if you finished the laundry. If you sprinkle some Baby Magic baby powder along windowsills and under doors, this will keep out the ants and other outside bugs.

If you don't have any dusting spray, get a pair of your husband's socks and put them on your feet and hands. If you are too lazy to bend over, put your feet to work. When you are finished, throw the socks in the wash and put them back in the drawer.

WD40 is wonderful for greae on work clothes and on floors. Dr. Pepper will get corrosion off of car batteries, and will get insects off of your car windshield. I know, some people drink it! Try shaving cream not only on your legs, but also on your mirrors so they won't fog up when you are taking a shower. I suggest a paper towel rather than a razor to clean the mirror. If someone gets poison ivy, use regular nail polish remover. It also works for getting Krazy Glue from your skin and getting fake tattoos from your skin.Peanut butter will remove gum from your hair. Then make a peanut butter sandwich with what is left over.

I hate to peel onions! They make your hands smell and make you cry. Try and keep your onions in the refrigerator or just put a lit candle on the kitchen counter before you start to peel it. To get the odor of an onion from your hands, sprinkle a bit of salt on your wet hands, then rinse. Caution! If you have high blood pressure, don't lick your fingers. When the kids are screaming and yelling for you to peel an orange, dunk the orange in hot water for a few minutes, then in cold water. It will peel more easily. Make sure you don't dunk the kids. You can do tomatoes the same way, too.

Try and keep the kids' room straight -- we don't want to go there. This is a battle in itself. I haven't come up with anything on that one. Has anyone?

So it's safe to say that there are things just in your cupboards that will make cleaning a little easier and get the cleaning and housework done. Or better yet, just hire someone to come in and do the cleaning and housework for you. That would be the answer. But when fixing a boo-boo, there is nothing like mom's lip-smacking smooch!

So anyway after we got there, we three and a group of other people were there. There was a photographer trying to get a picture of a bull moose! The moose was ducking his head in and out of the water. He was getting at the tender grass under the water, near the edge of the lake. Suddenly the photographer said, "I wish I could get that moose to look at me." (He had been trying to get a picture of the moose's face for sometime now.)

Then my brother Bruce said, "I bet I can." Now my brother has always been an avid stone thrower all his life. We grew up throwing stones and skipping stones when out camping or mining gold at dad's claim. So my brother proceeded to throw rocks. The 1st rock hit the moose on the shoulder. The moose never even noticedit seemed. Then Bruce did a few more time not ever fazing this moose. But the last stone hit the moose on the rear. Then that big bull moose lifted his great head and turned around and looked right at my brother. There were about 6 of us standing there. But that moose went straight for my brother. We all scattered, yelling "Run for it!"

We saw Bruce 2 hours later -- dirty and scratched. He said, "Boy that moose was made! He almost got me!" The only thing that saved me was a fallen over tree. The moose had tried even then to hoof me out of my hiding. We were lucky that day. It might have been worse. I being the oldest did get my rear tanned because I should have known better. But I'll always remember that day in Alaska.

y mom nick-named me "Bird," because I was the last and her smallest child. She said, "I was small and quick," like I was flying or something. I was always getting into something -- from pots and pans to the top of the dresser! I never got into trouble really; I was just sent to my room. I was a very sneaky, curious, clumsy, and spoiled little mommy's baby.

I have an older sister named Missy. She is also a real piece of work! She was nothing like me. She is more of a "hush-hush" type. She used me sometimes as her guinea pig. I was like most six-year olds; I looked up to my big sister. She taught me many things. I'm not saying she was always right, but I looked up to her just the same.

I asked Missy to play slide with me. I just learned, so I was excited to play. She told me, "If you eat some lotion, I'll play slide with you." I bucked the bottle and threw up everywhere. My mom saw my face and told me to go to my room. I laid down and tossed and turned for thirty minutes. I was feeling sick, and I wanted to be with my momma, so I snuck in her room. She had fallen asleep by the time I came back. Her arm was behind her head. I do not know why, but I took my hair-bow off my braid and put it on the hair under her arm. I tried hard not to wake er up, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the hair-bow from under her arm, so I started crying. She heard me crying and woke up. As soon as she put her arm down to console me, she felt my hair-bow under her arm and busted out laughing. I was crying and she was tickled.

That was the fourth day of our stay in San Francisco. We made a plan to go to Napa Valley to see wineries and to find a good wine, and decided to join a tour with a Japanese guide. I expected it to be great because I could understand all that a guide would explain at that tour.

In spite of my expectation, it was really disappointing. The Japanese guide teemed to have no morale all the way. At the first winery we visited, he let us get off the bus, told us that he would pick us up after thirty minutes, and went back to the bus. All we could do was to browse a souvenir shop for thirty minutes. It was very boring. At the second winery, he took us to the tasting. It was interesting. However, he left us in a souvenir shop after we had finished it. At the third, we had to kill time in a souvenir shop again. I could not believe we did not visit any inside of winery. I wanted to have seen how to make wine and to understand explanations completely. That was why I chose that tour.

I was dissatisfied and angry with that guide all the way. Just after having come back to Charlottesville, I was still angry and talk this story to many people. At that time, it was a bad memory for me. However, now I remember it as a funny memory. I am not angry with him at all. I remember that weird atmosphere with other Japanese tourists. It was clear all of them were disappointed, but none of us complained to the guide and tried to get along together. I believe it was nice for us not to conflict with the guide in the middle of the tour. Then, I remember that Japanese guide. He looked shy, so I think he might not have been good at talking with many people. If so, he could have had much stress because of his unsuitable job.

In fact, I enjoyed the wine tasting, found a wonderful white wine, and bought a bottle of that one. I am a little sorry not to have seen the inside of wineries. However, I thank the Japanese guide now because he gave me such an unforgettable memory.

ack in Louisa County, when I was 12, there was a mean music teacher at our elementary school that I didn't like. Her name was Mrs. Hawkins. She always wore big brimmed hats, black hi-heeled wedge shoes, with white cotton stockings and long dark dresses. She was a big chunky lady with big feet and wore plastic glasses down on the tip of her nose so she could stare you down over the tops of the rims. She made us sing a song about "Hebm." "When We Get to Hebm." It made me laugh and I purposely pronounced the word Heaven to spite her.

I was a big kid for my age and I had to sit at a table at the side of the classroom, away from the regular sized kids in their small desk and chair combinations. The wooden floors were always cleaned with motor oil and rubbed off on our clothes if we fell down or rassled leaving dark, oily marks.

Mrs. Hawkins always laid her hat on top of the piano. This gave me an idea. I put a mousetrap under her hat one day to catch her fingers. It worked pretty good. She asked the class, "Who did this?" No one told on me so Mrs. Hawkins wrote a letter to everyone's parents asking them to tie a mousetrap on a string around our necks to wear to school. We had to keep them on all week.

When my momma saw the letter, she asked me "Who in the world would do that?" Since she had always taught me to tell the truth, I had to tell her "I did it." So, she applied her truth to my behind. I didn't get away with it after all.

n the summer of 1995 I took my first trip west. I was really excited and looking forward to something different. And, Oh! Boy! I was in for a real treat. I was amazed at the cactus and the dry desert sand. The only water I saw was in the swimming pools. It was so hot in Tucson. The temperature was over 100 degrees for the entire seven days. Although it was very hot and dry, I was comfortable and enjoyed the climate. Let me tell you about the most exciting thing on my trip. This is how the adventure began and how I met my new friend.

My husband James isa minister, and this gave me the opportunity to join the Ministers' Wives and Widows Alliance of Charlottesville and Vicinity. During one of our monthly meetings, five of the sixteen women decided to attend the fifty-fifth annual convention. So we made our reservations to travel to Tucson, Arizona for the annual International Ministers' Wives and Widows Alliance convention.

Our husbands drove us from Charlottesville to the Richmond airport. As we were waiting for our flight we enjoyed moments of laughing, praying and a few tears. As the time grew closer for our departure, our husbands were pure basket cases. One of the husbands, Rev. White, was very sad that his wife would be away for seven days, but at the same time, he was delighted to know that she would be well taken care of and in good company.

Oh what a lovely trip. We arrived in Tucson at approximately 11:00 pm local time and took a shuttle to the hotel. The five of us checked into the West La Paloma hotel. Helen, Alice and I shared a suite and Natalie and Jean shared the suite next door.

The first night I was so excited that I did not sleep well. I was up very early the next morning exploring the hotel. It was a resort and from our balcony we were overlooking the golf course. And that's when I unexpectedly met my new four-legged friend.

There he was sitting underneath a cactus. He was huge and when he stood on his hind legs, he was approximately 2 feet tall. Guess what, it was a jackrabbit! Right away I named him Jack Zona because of his greyish white hair, long ears and he was so skinny that I thought he was starving. So I went inside and told the ladies all about Jack Zona. They were laughing and asking "Who in the world is Jack Zona?" After describing my new friend, they too were helping me find food to feed him, and oh yes! we fed him everything that we could find in our rooms. That included fruits, nuts, bagels and cookies. During the week, every time that we went out to eat, we would bring Jack Zona food to eat. When we called home we shared our adventures with our husbands and children. We talked about the convention and our new friend Jack Zona.

On Sunday, we visited Rev. Victor Wilson at the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. He and his congregation treated us royally and after the worship services we were blessed with a delicious meal. And guess what? I took Jack Zona some of my dinner! When we returned to the resort and stepped out on the balcony he was there, sitting in his usual place by the cactus waiting for the food that he usually got twice a day. It did not take Jack very long to get acquainted with his new friends especially since he was getting fed well. The convention events during the week included a five-part pre-convention musical, workshops, and in the evenings, pray and praise worship services. Thursday night we attended the banqueet and the ceremony was a beautiful sight to see: there were over 2,500 ladies dressed elegantly in white and gold. On our last day in Arizona, we toured sites in Mexico; even while in Mexico we thought about Jack Zona. It was an interesting trip but we were deeply saddened by the sight of the people living in poverty.

And now it's time to fly home. We arrived safely and our husbands were waiting at the airport with open arms and big smiles. In later years we are still talking and wondering about Jack Zona. Did he meet new friends? Or did he go back to the hills? We hope that one day we can return to Arizona for a real vacation and have even more fun. We hope it won't be too long and we welcome you to travel with us.

I can hear the acorns falling down from oak trees. I have never heard this sound before. These oak trees are so big, I can't hold them with my two arms. I enjoy watching squirrels playing around hills. I have seen many activities of the squirrels: running, picking up acorns, and eating acorns. I think that it is most cute that squirrels stand up and look around hills, turning their heads. Have you ever seen this activity of squirrels? If not, try it. It is amusing, and you will smile to yourself.

I thought squirrels in Charlottesville were a different kind of animal the first time I saw them. The backs of squirrels in Korea have five black stripes. Most squirrels in Charlottesville, on the other hand, don't have these stripes and are only gray. It was interesting for me.

My mother-in-law makes acorn jelly, Dotoli-muk in Korean, well. The taste of acorn jelly is a little bitter and sweet. The shape and strength of this is rectangular and soft like tofu, and the color of this is dark brown. Acorn jelly is healthy, and we eat this with soy sauce. She goes to a mountain to pick up acorns in competition with the squirrels. If she comes around my home in Charlottesville, she will be surprised and pick them up immediately.

I miss my mother-in-law's acorn jelly. I wonder why Americans haven't made food from acorns. But I think it is O.K. because the squirrels can eat always. Whenever I see a squirrel, I say, "Hey, squirrel! How are you doing?" Then the squirrel might say, "Great! I am full, so I am happy!"

Later, a volunteer student took a couple of other new students and me to a supermarket to do some shopping. "I need to buy some food at least for the first couple of days," I said to myself. The supermarket was big: it was also very quiet since it was already midnight. I put some groceries in my basket, such as milk, bread, and so on. Then a pile of packs with the sign "on sale" caught my eyes. Each pack had four cylindrical cans in it; it was labeled "biscuits." The English we were taught in China was mostly British English. From what I learned, the word "biscuit" means a kind of dry and crispy food made mainly of flour, usually flat and thin, which corresponds to "cracker" or "cookie" in American English. I certainly needed some crackers or cookies. I grabbed a pack of the "biscuits" and then went to check out in a hurry.

The second day I moved to the university dormitory. I put the "biscuits" on the table. There was no refrigerator yet (unless you rented one) in the room. Even though there was one, crackers or cookies don't need to be put in it. Because I was a new international student, there were so many things waiting for me to do: orientation meetings, department meetings, enrollment and registration...

Either that night or the next, when I was in my room, I heard a big "peng" sound coming from the pack of the "biscuits," like the sound of a soft explosion. I went to the "biscuits" pack, and saw one of the four cans was broken. I took that "exploded" can out of the pack, and saw some strange white stuff in it. It looked and smelled more like raw dough, not like crackers or cookies at all. I was so confused. Then I read the instructions, and it seemed it was something for baking. I had no choice but to throw the raw dough into the trash can. The rest of the"biscuits" cans "exploded" one by one in the next few days...

It was not until quite some time later that I realized and understood that in American English, "biscuit" usually means a kind of small and soft bread. The "biscuits" I bought were cans of ready-to-bake raw dough. And they must be kept refrigerated. Otherwise the dough would grow bigger and bigger due to the warm temperature and the yeast in it, and thus would lead to the "explosion." However, they are very convenient for customers. Just put the dough pieces in the oven, bake at a certain temperature for a certain amount of time, then they are ready to serve! Unfortunately, my "biscuits" didn't end up that way!

The bully spotted me and chased me to the fence. As I climbed over the fence, my pants got hooked near the waist and ripped from my pocket down my leg. There I was dangling from the fence by one leg, my underwear almost completely exposed with crowds of people walking by. The bully started picking up rotten fruit from a pear tree and throwing it at me. Then I was convulsing and swinging from the fence trying to dodge pieces of fruit. Finally, I fell about seven feet to the ground, but I got away from the bully.

Despite the bully's attempt to deter me, I set off again for the candy store, even though my pants were hanging halfway off of me and rotten pear pulp covered my clothes, hair and skin. I was blessed with the gift of running, and was on the school track team, so I took advantage of this ability to get away from the bully. I bought my candy, but then I saw him again. I ran back to the parking lot and climbed the fence to my neighbors' yard, forgetting that they had one of the meanest German shepherds I've ever known.

I ended up running through my neighbor's driveway towards the front of the house, and the dog was in hot pursuit. I got to the gate and drove over the four-foot fence. The dog was hanging on by my ripped pants leg and flew over with me.

At first, my mother was very afraid for me, but when it was all over and she was sure I was o.k., she laughed as I picked up my candy from the fall and said to me, "You looked like Superman flying over the fence with that dog hanging on your pants."

I think back to days like this and laugh. It was scary, but at the same time it was so comical. If I hadn't experienced it myself, I wouldn't have believed it. The lengths I would go to to get candy!

One of my colleagues had a grandmother who was very very old and had been sick for a long time. Her grandmother, who was called Mama couldn't get up at all, and could only lie in the bed. This meant that my friend's mother had to take care of the Mama every day. One day, my friend's mother felt and realized the Mama was very weak and lost her consciousness. After 4 hours, her mother found that the Mama had no breath. She had died silently. My friend's mother called all the family members immediately. According to tradition, they bathed the Mama and dressed her in the clothes and socks and shoes. Then they moved the Mama to the living room to wait for the correct amount of time before putting the Mama's body into a coffin. During the waiting time, they were very sad. They cried and burned the golden paper every day. All family members and friends were in mourning, the Mama had been dressed in the dead-cloth. After 3 days, they heard someone gasp. A minute later, the Mama said, "I feel so hot. I don't want to wear so many clothes and socks."

The whole family couldn't believe that the Mama was still alive. Why not? They had no idea about what they should do. They couldn't move the Mama to the bedroom at once and must wait for the right time. Most embarrassingly, they did not know how to explain to the Mama why she was lying in the living room, and that she must lie there for a period of time.